Bill Clinton backs Irish philanthropy campaign
Howard Lake | 15 October 2013 | News
Former US president Bill Clinton has thrown his weight behind the One Percent Difference campaign in Ireland which seeks to promote giving by individuals and business.
Speaking to an audience of 250 guests consisting of Irish business leaders, philanthropic groups, academics and government representatives in Dublin, Mr Clinton said the rest of the world could learn from the campaign.
“I think this One Percent thing is a great idea for two reasons” he said. @One is it raises a lot of money. The second is that it would democratise giving further because everyone can afford it, and if you don’t have money you can give one percent of your time and make a contribution.”
He added that increasingly what philanthropic groups are doing is trying to figure out how to solve problems faster, better, and at lower cost, because they can take risks and if they try and fail, nobody is going to vote them out of office.
Mr Clinton was delivering the annual Ray Murphy Memorial Lecture which is organised by the government-backed Forum on Philanthropy and Philanthropy Ireland.
The annual lecture was established in memory of Ray Murphy who was involved in charitable foundation work and international philanthropy. It is supported by Atlantic Philanthropies and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
Photo: Bill Clinton by stocklight / Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.